


I'm Your Best Story

by tequilasunrise666



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:27:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28755867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tequilasunrise666/pseuds/tequilasunrise666
Summary: Catra lets a grin sneak out as she takes a sip from her drink. “You know, I think I can get behind this version of you.”Adora smirks. “Give it a few more shots, and we’ll see.”Catra spits out her drink.One bar. Two former...something’s.  What’s stronger; the history or the space between them?
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 119





	I'm Your Best Story

Adora enters the bar and immediately sees her. She doesn’t even have to look, really. She just feels a pull and…there Catra is. Sitting there nursing a drink, eyes downcast. 

Adora pushes through the crowd and takes a seat next to Catra. For exactly one glorious, hopeful second, their eyes meet, and just as Adora works up the courage to say any of the lines she practiced on the way over, Catra’s gaze drops back to her drink. For added measure, she shifts her body away from Adora.

“Just go, Adora. I don’t think I can handle one of your motivational speeches right now.” Catra’s voice has a raspy tilt to it, and Adora can tell the drink in her hand is not her first of the evening.

“I’m not here to give a speech. Just here to drink.” She holds two fingers up to the bartender. “Whiskey, on the rocks, and make it a double, please.”

As the bartender shuffles away, Catra raises a single eyebrow at the blonde. “On a school night?”

“We’re 24, Catra.”

“Still.” They sit in comfortable silence, an old rhythm Adora lets herself fall slowly back into. When the bartender brings her drink, she raises it to Catra.

“What do you want to toast to?” Adora gives an encouraging smile to the brunette, but receives a glare in return.

“To drinking alone.” Catra’s glare doesn’t falter as she clinks her glass against Adora’s with force.

Completely undeterred, Adora smirks at Catra and throws her glass back. She privately congratulates herself as she manages to drink the whole thing in one go, and smiles even more broadly when she sees Catra’s mouth hanging wide open.

“Jesus, woman.”

“What? I’m trying to catch up to you.” Adora flags down the bartender again and calls out for another. She turns back in her seat to see the ghost of a smile on Catra’s face. “What?” She asks.

Catra lets a grin sneak out as she takes a sip from her drink. “You know, I think I can get behind this version of you.”

Adora smirks. “Give it a few more shots, and we’ll see.”

Catra spits out her drink.

  * · ·



An hour later, it’s Adora spitting into her drink with laughter, as Catra throws her arms in the air, mid-story.

“So I make a beeline for the exit, right? And right as I reach it, the security guard stops me and is all like ‘ma’am, I’m gonna need to search your pockets.’ And at this point, I’ve probably got 30 breadsticks crammed in there.” Catra’s eyes sparkle as she tells the story, and if Adora wasn’t laughing as hard as she was, she’d be able to tell Catra how pretty she looked when she was talking about crime.

“So he starts to pat me down, and I think ‘this is it, I’m finally gonna find out if there really is a little jail in the mall’, and right as he reaches the breadsticks, I hear this noise from above me, and Entrapta falls through the ceiling vent right onto the guard.”

Several bar patrons are listening in now, but Catra only has eyes for Adora.

“Entrapta looks around and goes ‘This isn’t the kitchens.’ I pull her up and we just book it. I think we made it about 30 feet before the store brand Paul Blarts caught up to us. And that’s why I’m banned for life from Olive Garden.” Catra takes a triumphant pull from her drink as a few people clap and holler.

Adora doesn’t though. She registers faintly that she should be laughing, or saying ‘Gee Whiz Catra, what a great story’, but for some reason her brain can’t form the words she’d really like to say.

“Um, hello? That’s my best story. Your drink should be adorably squirting out your nose right now.” Catra brings a finger to the center of Adora’s forehead and pushes. “Everything okay in there?”

“I thought I was your best story.”

The words are out before Adora can stop them, and she comes to her senses just as Catra jerks her hand away from Adora. Her mismatched eyes narrow at the blonde.

“Oh yeah? Which part? Leaving me? Breaking my heart?”

“Catra…” She doesn’t get a chance to finish her sentence though; Catra’s standing with her drink and walking away and how did this happen? They’d been fine a second ago. Adora felt like it was her fault, but that could have just been because everything always felt like her fault. Especially when it came to Catra.

Adora watches as Catra’s back gets smaller and smaller. She doesn’t walk towards the exit though; she’s headed to the back room.

_Follow her._

That little voice in Adora’s head that had always been there rears its head in a most welcome way. They were adults now. She was done running, at least away from things. If she was going to run, it might as well be towards Catra.

  * · ·



Adora does finds her in the back room, bent over a pool table. She glances up as Adora approaches cautiously, but doesn’t make a run for it. Adora takes it as a good sign.

“At least you didn’t jump out the bathroom window this time.”

Catra rolls her eyes. “That was _one_ time, Adora.”

Adora laughs. “You left your shoe behind. It was extremely Cinderella of you.”

Catra sinks a ball and faces the blonde. Maybe it’s the drinks or the late hour or the intoxication that just comes naturally with being near Catra, but Adora’s brain shuts down as Catra slinks towards her. 

“Uh, nice shot.” _Really? That’s all you got, kid?_ Thank you, brain. Adora makes a mental note to be smoother, but that effort is abandoned immediately as she registers that Catra has backed her up against the pool table. 

Catra’s face is inscrutable as she lays down both hands on either side of Adora, pinning her between the edge of the pool table and herself. Adora feels her face getting warmer, and she feels suddenly glad the back room is empty.

“I have a proposition.” Catra almost whispers the words.

“Yes.” Adora wishes she had a hand free to smack her own forehead.

“You haven’t even heard what it is yet.”

“Ask me then.”

Catra seems to be sizing her up. “You. Me. One game of pool. If I win, you have to apologize for leaving me.”

Somewhere in Adora’s head, she knows she should point out that she’s apologized to Catra a dozen times, but something else makes her bite her tongue. Slowly moving within the confines of Catra’s arm blockade, she reaches around to pick up a cue stick.

“Fine. But when I win…” Adora places the cue stick in Catra’s hands and leans in to whisper in her ear. “You have to apologize for not coming with me.”

And _oh_ , Catra’s grinning and Adora suddenly wonders how she ever thought a sunset was beautiful.

“Deal.”

  * · ·



To neither of their surprise, Adora immediately starts losing. Where Catra was all strategy, cunning, and impeccable aim, Adora was comprised entirely of muscle that had no place in this game of skill.

Adora decides to be an adult about this, and whine. “It’s not _fair_.”

“Why, princess, cause you’re not winning?” Catra sinks another ball and smirks at Adora. They’ve amassed a small crowd by this point, who seem to be impressed by how spectacularly bad Adora is. The blonde rounds a corner and crouches into position. As she leans down to examine her shot, Catra comes up behind her. The brunette places her hands over Adora’s and shifts them gently down the cue stick.

“Your hands are in the wrong spot.” Catra’s breath is gentle on her neck.

Suddenly hyper aware of the crowd watching them, Adora pulls the cue stick back. Low, but loud enough for Catra to hear, she whispers “Oh yeah? Where should my hands be?”

She hears Catra’s breath hitch and riding that high, shoots her shot. The ball sinks into the hole and the bar patrons shout with surprise. Adora smirks and turns to find Catra staring not at the table, but at her.

The brunette cocks her head to the side. “Down, girl.” Catra’s tone is playful, but the fire in her eyes is anything but.

The rest of the game passes too quickly for Adora’s liking. Catra wins by a mile and as they reset the table, their fans disperse. Soon, it’s just the two of them alone again.

Catra places the balls back in the rack as Adora stacks their cue sticks in the corner. They work in comfortable silence but comfortable isn’t what Adora wants right now.

“So? When do you want to collect?” At Adora’s voice, Catra whips around surprised, like she’d forgotten why they had played in the first place. That look is gone as quickly as it came.

“No time like the present.” Catra slides down against the wall and takes a seat on the floor. She pats the spot next to her, and Adora takes a seat.

For a while, the two girls sit together, neither acknowledging how close their fingers are inching towards each other.

Surprising both of them, Catra breaks form first, gently placing her head on Adora’s shoulder. Almost unconsciously, Adora rests her head atop Catra’s, and closes her eyes. With the touch barrier broken, their fingers find their way to each other and intertwine. Adora thinks they both let out a relieved sigh at the same time, but that might be wishful thinking.

Still, it’s enough to give her the courage to start. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to leave you behind. But I couldn’t stay any longer. You get that, right?”

Adora can feel Catra’s heart beat against her own in tandem. “I know that now. I guess…” Catra’s voice grows smaller, and without moving, she seems to shrink. “I always thought if you left, it would be with me, not…despite me.” 

Adora feels movement, and risks opening an eye. She’s rewarded by the simple, beautiful sight of Catra, staring up at her. Before Adora has a chance to contradict her, Catra continues. “I thought you left because you didn’t love me.”

Adora cups her hands around Catra’s face and presses her forehead to hers. “I came back because I did. I did.” She pauses. “I do.”

She feels Catra’s tears against her own cheek and decides to stop them the best way she knows how. Catra meets her halfway and it’s a kiss they’ve shared a thousand times before, so why does this one feel different? Their hands and limbs are tangled together on a dirty bar floor and all Adora can think about is how she can’t tell if the warmth she feels is coming from Catra’s body or from inside her own chest.

Catra’s hand finds her way into Adora’s hair and her fingers quickly wrap around her real target; Adora’s ponytail, which is taken out in one quick motion. Adora smiles against Catra’s lips as her hair falls around her.

“Was that your plan all along?”

“What’re you gonna do about it?” But before Adora can exact her revenge, her ringtone sounds off and Catra’s eyes light up with that special shine that only comes from making fun of Adora.

“I’m sorry, is that _Shakira_?”

Adora foregoes a dignified response and sticks her tongue out. She doesn’t even need to look at the screen as she picks up and says “Hey Bow.”

She half listens to Bow (and Glimmer shouting from the background) about how she was supposed to be home hours ago…something about making sure she isn’t dead…but it’s impossible to concentrate on what they’re saying really, with Catra’s lips on her neck.

“Guys. Guys. GUYS! I’m fine. I just got distracted.” At this, Catra raises an eyebrow. “I’ll be home soon.”

Adora hangs up and faces a devilish smile from the brunette. “Aw, out past your curfew, princess? And people thought _I_ was the bad influence.”

“You were. You are. Look at us, it’s 1:30 am and I’m on the floor of some bar, practically under a pool table.”

“And? Would you like to lodge a formal complaint?”

Adora grins. “I didn’t say that.”

In the distance, the bartender yells out for last call. “I should be getting home, though.”

Adora stands up and brushes off her knees. She looks down to see Catra quickly closing back in on herself, lips pursed together.

“Catra?”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever, I’ll see you around, I guess.” The brunette pulls her arms around her torso. 

Adora just smiles and holds out her hand. “Well…” She watches Catra’s eyes slowly rise to meet her own. “Are you coming?”

Catra stares up at her, and her smile somehow reaches her eyes before it warms the rest of her face. She takes Adora’s hand and allows herself to be pulled to her feet.

As they walk out of the bar together, Adora realizes that her hand is still clasped tight in Catra’s. She hopes Catra doesn’t mind, since she doesn’t intend to ever let go again.


End file.
